Research Reveals Social Well-being of Social Services

Non-profit leaders, government staff and elected officials, funders, and others will be interested in recent research by the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute (RDI), revealing not only results related to the social well-being of our communities, but of our community groups.

“We can track the well-being of residents and our region through indicators, such as education, income, and employment, which we do through our State of the Basin Initiative”, says RDI faculty assistant researcher Nadine Raynolds. “But what this applied research project provides is an indication of the well-being of those organizations that play such an integral role in advancing the well-being of our residents and region”.

The RDI’s non-profit social sector applied research project started with a survey of 88 social sector groups across the Columbia Basin-Boundary, which now offers a baseline understanding of the key characteristics, financial and human resources, organizational capacity, and challenges of the sector. The survey results also report on the levels of collaboration amongst groups, and the motivations and barriers to collaboration.

Following the survey, representatives from across the region came together through a series of focus groups, with discussion on what is working well, ideas to strengthen the social sector, and how groups across sectors can better work together to improve social well-being. These community conversations revealed several things about what is working well, such as the responsiveness to community needs and effective use of resources by social service agencies. There were plenty of ideas for improvement too, such as better communication between groups and across sectors, as well educating the community more about what social service agencies do. An important theme, that echoed results from the survey, was that social service agencies are continuously challenged with meeting the needs of residents and communities, with incredibly limited resourcing. They do the best they can, but improving the financial supports and exploring innovation were strong suggestions.

The research project also included interviews with leaders in the non-profit sector, exploring exactly that: Innovation, what makes it successful, and how a culture of innovation can be fostered. Research results apply to the non-profit sector, but are relevant for all areas of society. Examples of innovation in our region and resources on other Canadian social innovation organizations are provided in the RDI’s Innovation in Action research brief.

An advisory group of representatives from the social sector provided insight throughout the research project design, implementation, and mobilization of findings. Dr. Janice Murphy, Executive Director of the Kootenay Boundary Community Services Co-operative, was one of the advisors and has followed the project closely. “The outcomes of this research provide direction for improving the function, sustainability, and impact of the social sector”, said Murphy. “Having a baseline of the sector as well as further ideas for action are helpful for all organizations, and our funders, who seek to improve the social well-being in our communities.”

For more details on the project and to review research results visit the RDI’s non-profit social sector page.

As part of the process, RDI developed an inventory of social non-profits across the Columbia Basin-Boundary which is found on their Digital Basin.

RDI’s upcoming research related to social well-being will take a focus on indicators of poverty and poverty reduction.

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